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EXERCISE ON FORCE.

Select a sentence, and deliver it on a given key, with voice just sufficient to be heard: then gradually increase the quantity, until the whole power of the voice is brought into play. Reverse the process, without change of key, ending with a whisper. This exercise is so valuable that it can not be too frequently repeated.

QUALITY.

1. QUALITY has reference to the kind of tone used in reading and speaking. They are the PURE TONE, the OROTUND, the ASPIRATED, and the GUTTURAL.

2. THE PURE TONE is a clear, smooth, round, flowing sound, accompanied with moderate pitch; and is used to express peace, cheerfulness, joy, and love; as, Methinks I love all common things;

The common air, the common flower;
The dear, kind, common thought, that springs
From hearts that have no other dower,

No other wealth, no other power,
Save love; and will not that repay

For all else fortune tears away?

3. THE OROTUND is the pure tone deepened, enlarged, and intensified. It is used in all energetic and vehement forins of expression, and in giving utterance to grand and sublime emotions; as,

Strike, till the last armed foe expires;

STRIKE, for your altars and your fires;
STRIKE, for the green graves of your sires;
God and your native land.

4. THE ASPIRATED is an expulsion of the breath more or less strong, the words being spoken in a whisper. It is used to express amazement, fear, terror, horror, re venge, and remorse; as,

How ill this taper burns!
Ha! who comes here?

Cold drops of sweat hang on my trembling flesh;

My blood grows chilly, and I freeze with horror.

5. THE GUTTURAL is a deep under-tone, used to express hatred, contempt, and loathing. It occurs on the emphatic words; as,

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!

Thou cold-blooded slave!

Thou wear a lion's hide?

Doff it, for shame, and hang

A calf-skin on those recreant limbs.

RATE.

1. RATE refers to movement, and is QUICK, MODERATE, or SLOW.

2. QUICK RATE is used to express joy, mirth, confusion, violent anger, and sudden fear; as,

Away! away! our fires stream bright

Along the frozen river,

And their arrowy sparkles of brilliant light

On the forest branches quiver.

And there was mounting in hot haste,

The steed, the must'ring squadron, and the clatt'ring car Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,

And swiftly forming in the ranks of war.

3. MODERATE RATE is used in ordinary assertion, narration, and description; in cheerfulness, and the gentler forms of the emotions; as,

When the sun walks upon the blue sea-waters,
Smiling the shadows from yon purple hills,
We pace this shore,-I and my brother here,
Good Gerald. We arise with the shrill lark,
And both unbind our brows from sullen dreams;

And then doth my dear brother, who hath worn
His cheek all pallid with perpetual thought,
Enrich me with sweet words; and oft a smile
Will stray amidst his lessons, as he marks
New wonder paint my cheek, or fondly reads,
Upon the burning page of my black eyes,
The truth reflected which he casts on me.

4. SLOW RATE is used to express grandeur, vastness, pathos, solemnity, adoration, horror, and consternation; as,

O thou Eternal One! whose presence bright

All space doth occupy, all motion guide;
Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight;
Thou only God! There is no God beside!

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day;
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

EXERCISE ON RATE.

Select a sentence, and deliver it as slow as may be possible, without drawling. Repeat the sentence with a slight increase of rate, until you shall have reached a rapidity of utterance at which distinct articulation ceases. Having done this, reverse the process, repeating slower and slower. This exercise will enable pupils to acquire the ability to increase and diminish rate at pleasure, which is one of the most important elements of good reading and speaking.

SECTION VII.-PAUSES.

PAUSES are suspensions of the voice in reading and speaking, used to mark expectation and uncertainty, and to give effect to expression. They are often more eloquent than words.

Pauses differ greatly in their frequency and their length, according to the nature of the subject. In lively conversation, and rapid argument, they are comparatively few and short. In serious, dignified, and pathetic speaking, they are far more numerous and more prolonged.

The pause is marked thus, in the following illustrations and exercises.

RULES FOR THE USE OF PAUSES.

1. A pause is required after a compound nominative in all cases; and after a nominative consisting of a single word, when it is either emphatic, or is the leading subject of discourse; as,

Joy and sorrow move him not. No people can claim him. No country can appropriate him.

2. A pause is required after words which are in apposition with, or opposition to, each other; as,

Solomon the son of David was king of Israel. False delicacy is affectation not politeness.

3. A pause is required after but, hence, and other words denoting a marked transition, when they stand at the beginning of a sentence; as,

But it was reserved for Arnold to blend all these bad qualities into one. Hence Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom.

4. A pause is required before that, when a conjunction or relative, and the relatives who, which, what; together with when, whence, and other adverbs of time and place, which involve the idea of a relative; as,

He went to school that he might become wise. This is the man that loves me. We were present when La Fayette embarked at Havre for New York.

5. A pause is required before the infinitive mood, when governed by another verb, or when separated by

an intervening clause from the word which governs it; as,

He has gone to convey the news. He smote me with a rod to please my enemy.

6. In cases of ellipsis, a pause is required where one or more words are omitted; as,

So goes the world; if

that

brother.

wealthy, you may call this friend,

7. Pauses are used to set off qualifying clauses by themselves; to separate qualifying terms from each other, when a number of them refer to the same word; and when an adjective follows its noun; as,

The rivulet sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks seems with continuous laughter to rejoice in its own being. He had a mind deep active well stored with knowledge.

These rules, though important, if properly applied, are by no means complete; nor can any be invented which shall meet all the cases that arise in the complicated relations of thought. A good reader or speaker pauses, on an average, at every fifth or sixth word, and in many cases much more frequently. His only guide, in many instances, is a discriminating taste in grouping ideas, and separating by pauses those which are less intimately allied. In doing this, he will often use what may be called

SUSPENSIVE QUANTITY.

SUSPENSIVE QUANTITY means prolonging the end of a word, without actually pausing after it; and thus suspending, without wholly interrupting the progress of sound.

The prolongation on the last syllable of a word, or Suspensive Quantity, is indicated thus, in the following examples. It is used chiefly for three purposes:

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